Fears
by Kimmie G914
Summary: Fear has the power to control us. Everyone has fears; it's a natural human part of life. But those people who become so overwhelmed with and engrossed by their fears end up being controlled and ruled by their fears. They waste away and can't get back. They end up going crazy, and if not completely, they sit recklessly on the brink, constantly. AU/AH


**Hey, Everyone!**

**So I know I haven't been on Fanfiction very much lately, and I apologize for that. I've been really busy, but I'll try very hard to get back into the scheme of updating.**

**I just realized something, however. My two-year anniversary for being a writer on Fanfiction was last Sunday, and I didn't post anything to celebrate. So, happy late anniversary to me! :P**

**I hope you guys will enjoy my gift to you!**

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Fears

Annabeth woke up in the middle of the night and stared at the dark bedroom. She could only imagine what was waiting for her in the dark; vampires and demons and spiders the size of her bed filled her mind, and soon she was whimpering and calling out for her father.

Her dad came in and cradled her in his arms, turning on the light. "Annabeth? Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

The light brought peace to her seven-year-old mind, but only until the next night, when she would wake up once again to experience her own torture.

...

Annabeth was timid to walk down the hallway alone. She knew she would be late to geometry if she didn't take this shortcut, but the dark and the unknown made her cringe.

She could only imagine what was waiting in the dark, or behind the corner, or up in the stairwell.

Demons of her own creation filled her head that she only made more horrific as she began to move slowly and cautiously forward, looking around and above her constantly, wary of the beasts that could fly or were stuck to the ceiling.

Her entire body was shaking, stiff with anticipation as she began to climb the stairs.

She finally opened the doors and the light filled the hallway.

She had done it. She was safe.

The late bell exploded from the speakers above her head, making her jump out of her skin and scream.

She dropped her stuff and fell to the floor, looking around, desperately scared and hopelessly confused.

Embarrassment began to sink in as she realized what she had just done, and, blushing, Annabeth pulled her things together and ducked into class.

...

Annabeth hugged her jacket closer to her as she walked home from high school, the darkness beginning to get to her. She could see her breath in front of her, and hear her footsteps loudly and clearly as she moved along the sidewalk.

That made her wonder what else could hear her.

She thought up spiders in the bushes, which led to creatures with venomous eyes watching her walk home.

She began to shake as she continued, trying to steel herself from the horrors. She tried to tell herself it was just her imagination, but she knew by now it was, but she couldn't dismiss the _what ifs_ that filled her entire brain.

She finally gave in to herself and took off running home, almost brought to tears by her own fears and imagination.

Together they were a horrific team.

...

Senior graduation was only a few short months away, and Annabeth couldn't wait to get into college and begin her own life.

The thought of living in a house by herself scared her a little bit, but she knew those childish fears would pass as soon as she turned eighteen, which was happening only two months before graduation.

She listened to her friend moan about how her newest boyfriend had just broken up with her; how he had cheated and claimed he had the right to dump her.

As Annabeth listened, she began to formulate her own scenarios in her own mind, about boys and men and rejections and being cheated on and being murdered.

She already distrusted the male gender based on how many times she had envisioned herself being kidnapped or raped on her walks home, but now?

She had two more fears, fears that added up to one thing; heartbreak.

She began to distance herself from all of her male friends, and never associated with boys except for school projects.

She soon became so distant that she didn't like talking to her two male teachers and would sit at another lunch table whenever a friend brought her boyfriend over to the lunch table for a little while.

...

Annabeth didn't trust her college roommate.

She never went to morning classes and stayed out extremely late. Annabeth would never admit it, but she would hide in the bathroom sometimes until Annalisa came back and went to sleep. Then Annabeth would study cram in the main common room until morning and survived on black coffee all day.

She never knew what her roommate was up to. They never spoke, and when they did, it was never about anything important.

"Are you ever going to bring a boy to the room, Annie?" she'd asked one time, and Annabeth had pretended not to hear, simply because this was one of the first time Annalisa had ever been up in the morning and that scared Annabeth worse than what she thought Annalisa could have been doing at night.

No, Annabeth would never initiate conversation with Annalisa, because she was too afraid of this girl, who was smaller than Annabeth in size, with brighter eyes and prettier features, chocolate brown hair and freckles across her nose and cheekbones.

All because of Annabeth's imagination, this small, pretty girl had been turned into a beast of great proportions, one Annabeth feared with all her mind and heart.

...

College would be ending for Annabeth in three months.

Annalisa had grown to loathe Annabeth and asked for a switch, and now Annabeth was alone in her dorm room.

She was looking for a new house to buy, because she decided she wanted to stay in New York.

But the thought of living alone terrified her, an apartment and a house equally. She didn't know who had lived there, who else would be living in the apartment building with her, if she did so chose to live in one, or the emptiness of a house all by herself.

So maybe she would room with one of her…friends. It took Annabeth a second to remember that one.

But when she tried to recall some of her friends, the only names that came to mind were Annalisa, whom she knew she wasn't friends with, and all of her college professors, who would all be entirely inappropriate to room with.

So…she had no one.

She began to face the horrors of what could be in all of those houses and apartments, which she would have to face alone.

She had been driven away from everyone based on fear

...

Annabeth sat at her desk and waited for a call to come in for a lawyer, specifically for her.

It was New York city, for Christ's sake, _somebody _must have committed a crime recently.

She began to think of all the crimes these horrid creatures could commit against each other, and how she felt so scared to come in contact with these people.

And then there was a man in front of her desk.

She continued to stare at her computer monitor.

"Excuse me, are you Annabeth Chase?"

She nodded, avoiding him.

"My name is Percy Jackson, and I need your help. I heard you were the best in town."

She hadn't known she held that ranking among the people of New York city, but she decided it was worth it to look at him.

She met his sea green eyes and she experienced a feeling she'd never felt before.

And she began to wonder why.

She soon became very afraid of this man because he, and only he, could make her feel this way, plus he was a man, which scared her enough already, but against her better judgment she took the case.

...

Annabeth had stayed in contact with his Percy Jackson after the case, simply because he refused to leave her alone.

She dreaded him and thought of all the horrible things he could be, for she never really knew him, and too afraid of what he could be, she wouldn't dare to.

He called her cell phone and she answered and hung up, as she always did.

She walked into her kitchen and thought and thought and thought, pondering and wondering why he would be so determined to commune with her.

.

Annabeth couldn't leave her bedroom without feeling watched, betrayed, scared, and violent.

She was ready to hit something, anything, at all costs. She had destroyed her couch for sneaking up on her in the living room the day after she shattered her glass coffee table for the same reason.

She rocked back and forth on her bed and couldn't stop herself.

She knew there was something wrong with her, but she didn't know what. She was desperate to get away from her fear, but she couldn't. It was too overwhelming, too powerful.

Her cell phone rang beside her, a sound she so seldom heard she hadn't known her phone was still in service.

The sound also rocked her out of her shell, and she jumped off the bed grabbed her phone, screamed, and threw it.

She'd meant for it to hit the wall and shatter, so the scary demons who were out to get her wouldn't be able to call her again, but instead it flew out the open window and onto the busy concrete road fifteen stories below.

And then she realized how she could escape the fear.

There was one thing she had yet to come to fear: heights.

And death.

She knew it, she knew it was her chance to escape. She knew it was her chance to escape the fear, the demons, everything.

She knew.

She crawled to the window sill, sat down, half in and half out. She stared at the busy street, and she thought she could see her cell phone below.

She reached out to grab it, and toppled out her window after it.

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**Thanks for Reading!**


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